The decision follows a one-month consultation period which ended on Wednesday September 18.
The spodumene market has rapidly evolved in recent years, increasing in diversity of supply and consumption. As a result, grades for spodumene have broadened significantly since the launch of Fastmarkets’ spodumene spot price in 2017, with spodumene regularly produced and traded below 5.7% grade.
Fastmarkets therefore reduced the minimum lithium oxide grade content to 5.0%, if it can be normalized to be priced on a 6% basis, to better reflect the current market dynamics.
Despite the decline in grades, spodumene is still typically priced at the 6% benchmark.
Similarly, the trading of small-tonnage parcels of spodumene has become less common, with standard transactions closer to 10,000 tonnes in today’s market. Therefore, Fastmarkets has additionally increased its minimum tonnage requirements.
The new specifications are below, with the amendments in italics.
MB-LI-0012 Spodumene min 6% Li2O, spot price, cif China, $/tonne
Quality: A mineral concentrate accepted by buyers for conversion in lithium chemicals used in battery applications (any size will be accepted) and with the following chemical composition: Li2O 6% (min 5.0 Li2O and max 6.1% Li2O accepted if it can be normalized to 6%); Fe2O3 < 1.3% (max 1.5% Fe2O3 accepted if it can be normalized to < 1.3%), H2O < 10%
Quantity: minimum 3,000 tonnes
Location: cif China
Timing: 90 days
Unit: USD/tonne
Publication: Daily, 1pm London time
MB-LI-0043 Spodumene min 6% Li2O, contract price, cif China, $/tonne
Quality: A mineral concentrate accepted by buyers for conversion in lithium chemicals used in battery applications (any size will be accepted) and with the following chemical composition: Li2O 6% (min 5.0 Li2O and max 6.1% Li2O accepted if it can be normalized to 6%); Fe2O3 < 1.3% (max 1.5% Fe2O3 accepted if it can be normalized to < 1.3%), H2O < 10%
Quantity: minimum 5,000 tonnes
Location: cif China
Timing: up to 1 year
Unit: USD/tonne
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of the month, 3-4pm London time.
These prices are part of the Fastmarkets industrial minerals package.
The first publication of the prices with the new specifications will be Friday September 20.
To provide feedback on this price or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this price, please contact Callum Perry and Zihao Li by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Callum Perry/Zihao Li, re CIF China spodumene prices.”
Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.
To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.
